California Conservative

My friend Jerry Ewing posted a comment that’s worth posting about because it’s important to address what Jerry’s said. First, here’s Jerry’s comment:

Everybody’s right, but the thing most seem to miss is, first of all, that a)we don’t yet have “a message,” certainly not one that is clear, coherent, and consistent across all party units. More importantly, we do not have and can not get the most important communication tools– newspapers and TV, from which a majority draw their view of the world– on our side. We have to somehow blast that message out over the biased media. The easiest way to do that is to base the message in things that the average Joe already knows, like government wastes money, and that you ought to live within your income. Apply common sense to this “common knowledge” and you have real education occurring without the need for swinging any axe handles.

The other part of messaging is the “Army of Davids” mindset that Gary mentioned earlier– the notion that we need to activate the activists, and get them to gain more activists, etc. The trick is to have something for them to do. I suggest that we use the Democrats plans as our springboard for developing our “message”– that is, a popular, realistic and common sense alternative– and from that we excite the Davids and beyond. Now, if we could just get our leaders to play that instigator role….

The first thing I’ll address is this statement:

[W]e don’t yet have “a message,” certainly not one that is clear, coherent, and consistent across all party units.

I can’t argue with Jerry that we have a coherent, universal message. What I will say, though, is that we’ve got everything we need to quickly put a coherent, appealing message together. Ed Rollins and others have said that Reaganism is dead. That’s BS. People that think Reagan’s message is dead don’t understand Reaganite conservatism.

At its core, Reaganite conservatism is based on the underlying principles of liberty, prosperity and security. I don’t think that I missed the time when people suddenly said that they were too prosperous, had too much individual and societal liberty and were too secure both in terms of national and homeland security.

That’s the framework that we should build our message around because it’s such an appealing foundation. Nonetheless, that’s just the foundation. The next step is much like building a house. Contractors generally don’t stop once they’ve poured the footings, laid the block & framed the house. They know that sheet-rocking the walls, installing the wiring, plumbing and the furnace, siding the home and putting in the finishing touches are all part of the process of building a livable home.

To make us more prosperous, we need a well-educated workforce, high quality, reasonably-priced health care, low taxes and minimal regulations. The GOP has generally garnered high marks on taxes and regulations but they’ve usually not done well with issues like health care reform and education. That must change ASAP.

There are alot of bright people in the GOP who understand education policy, both from a funding standpoint and curriculum standpoint, who can stand toe-to-toe with the DFL and defeat them in an education debate. Some people that leap to mind that fit that description are Janet and King, my friends from SCSU Scholars. They’ve both got substantial experience with education, both having made a living in the education field. They’re but two of the people who could debate education policy with the DFL and defeat them on the field of ideas.

Another area that conservatives should exploit is the issue of health care reform. Steve Gottwalt and Laura Brod have proposed numerous free market-based health care reforms. Last fall, Jan Schneider displayed a detailed knowledge of health care policy, especially with regards to the role mandates play in driving up health care costs. Josh Behling totally schooled Larry Haws on the issue in debate after debate, too.

The reason why this is important to shaping the GOP’s message is because health care costs are driving profits down for small businesses. If the GOP wants to prove that it’s the small business community’s best friend, then we have to fight the DFL on health care reform. That doesn’t mean adopting their policies but putting a smaller price tag on it. It means that we put forward solutions based on free market principles. It means proposing cafeteria-style health insurance which allows people to customize their coverage for their needs.

Here’s another statement Jerry made that’s worth thinking through:

More importantly, we do not have and can not get the most important communication tools– newspapers and TV, from which a majority draw their view of the world– on our side.

Conservatives have seen the liberal media’s bias seemingly forever. This year, however, journalism died. Bernie Goldberg has a book coming out Jan. 26 titled A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media. Hords of Palin-hating reporters from every major newspaper in the nation descended on Wasilla to find dirt on Gov. Palin but only David Freddoso and Stanley Kurtz looked into President-Elect Obama.

If we simply accepted that as our lot in life, then we should resign ourselves to eternally being the minority party. Having talked with Jerry on this subject, I know that isn’t his attitude. I’ll guarantee that that isn’t my attitude. Conservatives aren’t a bunch of whiners. We’re a solutions-oriented bunch. The next logical question is straightforward: What can be done to correct this situation?

The solution requires a multi-faceted approach. Building Facebook networks is part of the solution. Writing concisely-worded LTEs about the most important issues of the day is another part of the solution. Reaching out to people who aren’t currently part of our currently configured coalition is another part of the solution. Putting together YouTube videos showing liberals making stupid arguments is part of the solution, too.

A good example of utilizing YouTube effectively was the creation of the video of Maxine Waters saying that Fannie and Freddie were fine “thanks to the outstanding leadership of Franklin Raines.”

The reason why that was effective was because it exposed Democrats saying something that the American people knew wasn’t factual or accurate. We should jump at every opportunity to highlight that type of statement.

Finally, we can avoid the slobbing media’s filter with direct mailings when the subject is important enough. This isn’t something that will be a big part of our repertoire but if it’s used in the right situations, it can be highly effective.

The point I’m making is that we can get our message out just fine if we’re smart about it. It just means using every tool at our avail. That’ll require hard work but it’s definitely doable.

Technorati Tags: Media, Elections, Facebook, YouTube, Maxine Waters, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Conservatism

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 8:27 am and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, Elections, Media, Obama, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.